Details

Date Published

April 18, 2018

CPU Clock Rate

3.6 GHz

GPU Core Clock Rate

1.607 GHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

10 GHz

Description

I wanted to make this machine 8 years ago, 2 years after I started making case mods. I wanted to make a Metroid with a sweet lighting system. I was able to pull that off once I dipped into the world of 3d printing! I used a CR10 3D printer and this build took 500 hours of printing and 9 rolls of plastic (about 19 lbs of plastic). It uses about 500 leds, I had to cut about 35 feet of led strips into smaller pieces and solder them together for the lighting on this mod.

I designed the model on Tinkercad and 123design. I've made other cases in this style (pixelated), but used wooden cubes. This was a fun experiment with 3d printing and I'll definitely be doing more cases in this style.

I made a video of the case being built here: https://youtu.be/S6MWTAKUKUk
I would like to stress you can really see the lighting in action in the video if you have time to watch.

This has gotten a lot of great compliments and I really do appreciate all of them. I've been making mods for 10 years and its been a long time since I got a reception like this. Thank you guys.

I'd like to thank ASUS Republic of Gamers, thermaltake, and GeIL Memory for assisting equipment on this mod. Very great people to work with.

Part Reviews

CPU Cooler

Fits just right in this case. I was worried with the angle of the motherboard it would hit the top but it doesn't. Installed fairly easy, looks great and has been doing a pretty good job cooling my cpu with a bit of overclock on it.

Motherboard

Been a big fan of ROG boards and this is no different. This is my first foray into RGB lighting and the aura sync software works perfect with my fans/ram/feet/motherboard lights pulsing to go with the theme of this mod. Used the included overclocking software to boost my cpu and make it easy to use. I also just love ITX boards! Great to work with in these kinds of builds when the internal space is not a conventional rectangle of open space.

Video Card

Max'n out everything I'm throwing at it! I can't hear it under load and its got a nice sleek look to it. Works well using nvidias shaowplay and recording gameplay. I used this with my HTC Vive and man its awesome playing games at high settings! (I was on a 1060 before and would get some stuttering).

Power Supply

I like the fully modular power supplys when it comes to making a scratch mod. Having left over cables just lying around = :(. With this though only have to use whats needed. Powering my whole setup with no issue! I have the LED strips that go throughout the body hooked up a molex in here and its handling it perfectly.

Comments
Sorted by:

This build took 500 hours of preinting and 9 rolls of plastic (about 19 lbs of plastic). It uses about 500 leds, I had to cut about 35 feet of led strips into smaller pieces and solder them together for the lighting on this mod.

Dedication & creativity like this is the reason why i’m on this site multiple times a day ! This is going to be featured, no question about it.

If I wanted one..... How much would it cost for you to make it? Not a exact replica. I doubt you would want to spend that much time, and I'm not one to say (I'm kinda broke after my PC's) but I love these types of things! One day I'll make my own :) Thank you for you inspiration!

I just want to say WOW. That case is amazing. But I'm curious, why did you pair a Ryzen 5 1600X with a Asus Rog Strix X370? If I was pairing a CPU with a Mobo that expensive I would of gone Ryzen 7 1700X at least or gone with a Cheaper B350 ITX board like the Asus STRIX B350-F GAMING.

I have a thermaltake 200mm fan on the bottom, and 2 120mm fans on the back and top. So far been really solid. Whats neat is theres color changing plastic on the inside where the motherboard and graphic card are mounted. When I'm gaming the board and card heat up and the plastic turns from brown to green. But with the all the airflow, only the parts that make contact with the computer parts change color since it cools it off before the heat even bulids up.

Heres a photo of when I drilled into the plastic. You can see the bright green spot of the heat built up from the drill bits friction: https://imgur.com/eRGghT7

easily one of the coolest builds ive ever seen. one question i have is how easy do you think it would be to upgrade if and only if you decided to trade up the power supply? (not that you would need to im really just curious)

Pretty much all the parts would be the same difficulty as if they were in a normal case. The only thing different is taking off the top section. The back fan come off (I have it held in place with magnets), and then I reach my hand in to unplug the molex that connects the top of the case from the bottom.

This is absolutely gorgeous! I've been wanting to build a Metroid themed PC for quite some time but never thought of doing something like this. I've been in love with the series since I was a wee boy, as soon I saw this I knew I had to upvote it! How are the temps?

Thanks! Anything you make will be good, just stick to a plan and follow through :D.

Going to copy pasta this about the temps to someone I responded to earlier:

200mm fan on the bottom, and 2 120mm fans on the back and top. So far been really solid. Whats neat is theres color changing plastic on the inside where the motherboard and graphic card are mounted. When I'm gaming the board and card heat up and the plastic turns from brown to green. But with the all the airflow, only the parts that make contact with the computer parts change color.

Heres a photo of when I drilled into the plastic. You can see the bright green spot of the heat built up from the drill bits friction: https://imgur.com/eRGghT7

This is amazing. Why buy a generic case and mod it when you can build it. I always like cases people build from scratch. Keep up the work and hope you post more case in the future. Maybe next time you can tell us what worked and what didn't.

The only thing I really had issue with that didnt work was trying to print a piece longer than 2 days worth. If the printer failed due to a issue I lost 1-2 days of progress and the cost of the plastic. So I kept it down to 24ish hours worth of printing time. I'll be a little more thorough in the future on my descriptions. I just don't want to bore people so I try to keep things to the point and brief...

Thumbs up for the creativity. These are the kind of builds that I enjoy looking at as it's so different and unique. It's also stuff I wish I could do but I'm just too lazy/ don't have enough time xd.

The air flow of it is actually pretty well thought out as all the cold air from the bottom get's redirected to that rear exhaust fan. I was curious though, while the airflow is pretty well directed, is that one fan on the bottom able to bring in enough cool air? What are the cpu and gpu temps underload?

wow brother just wow lol this amazing i literally had to do a double take when i first stumbled on to your page. so glad i found this its 2am here and i honestly cant wait for the wife to wake up tomorrow so i can show this to her it is truely amazing what you have created thank you for sharing i love this website :) take care and good luck on your next build but from this one i dont think you need the luck tbh youve got some serious skills :)

hey nice build! :)
just wanna ask
any comments on the x370 i motherboard?
how's the vrm any thermal throttling when overclocking?
how's the audio with only 3 ports?
about the ports being reduce and removing the USB type c port any complains about it?
just wanna know your opinion about it thanks in advance for your reply :)

I've only done mild overclocking so far (haven't needed to do much as it's handling everything I throw at it) so I haven't experienced thermal throttling. I haven't had any issue with audio, everything been clear for me, no perceptible noise. I haven't used a Usb c port on any motherboard yet so I haven't had a chance to know what I'm missing by not having it I suppose. I'm fine with usb3.0 ports though.

Overall its been a really great board for me. The lighting system was easy to setup and spacing to put on the heatsink+fan for the cpu is perfect (I've had other companies itx boards where they would not have enough space for a good heat sink and the ram).